WARNING: Time-Devouring Speedlinks

The irony of this post’s title is readily apparent. Speedlinks are supposed to be fast, but there’s plenty of hot stuff to keep even someone with the attention span of a gnat glued to the screen for an hour, so choose your poison below.

[Truth be told, I love piling all these disparate links/items in one post. There’s some stuff here to peruse quickly, but there’s also plenty on which to procrastinate, or to suck up an entire boring day at the office.] -Strobist: Photos of the Year contest. A 30-second read on David’s blog will catch you up on the great photo contest he’s putting on, but a 30-minute perusal of his Flickr pool won’t even scratch the surface of what’s in contention. There’s some good stuff in there. And, you’ll be excited by the prizes. Panel of judges? How bout a panel of one: ME. All bribes will be considered on their merits.

-Flying Humans. You may have seen this, but if not, your time is now. Some friends of my friends were involved in getting this sport off the ground (pun intended) a while back. Nice to see things coming together. The sport is now even featuring in the mainstream. This shiznit is straight-up insane. Beautiful, but insane.

-I’ve said it publicly plenty of times: the face of copyright is changing, and as as visual artists, we should be well aware of how it could effect us. Blindly sticking a stake in the ground for copyright is like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Not that the current laws should not be defended, because I believe vehemently that they should, and I’m not afraid to do so. But, it’s time to begin educating one another and visual artists everywhere about options. Only by taking the lead in re-defining the next iteration of copyright law will we have a fair stake; and prior to that we need to educate ourselves on trends and options. I’m a fan of lawyer and Stanford Professor, Larry Lessig, who’s TED video below is a must watch. Things like the Creative Commons, its proponents, ideas, and fundamentals, are not the uncontested answer to professional photography’s needs by any stretch, but they’re a good place to start to understand the mentality of the new era. Only by understanding its movers and shakers and the core of a new and rising ethos can we help shape, manage, collaborate and build upon it. I suggest you seek to understand some of Larry’s ideas:

-BTW, while I’m thinking of it, a few readers in just the past couple days have asked me why I blog. Some one-liners are outdated, but generally things haven’t changed much since I gave this interview a while back.

-Lots of shopping lists are beginning to appear online for the holiday gift-giving season. A friendly list–with a broad range of prices and interest values–has been presented by CreativeTechs . Getting slightly more geeky TUAW did one for gamers (Guitar Hero anyone?); and there are ridiculously expensive ideas for techies over here at CNET, but the all around winner goes to Coolhunter.

-Lastly, speaking of gifts, as a reward for reading to the bottom of this time-devouring speedlinks list, how bout a dorky, baited, friendly challenge: for every person who leaves a comment on intervals of 10 (ie comment #10, 20, 30…) up to #50 on this post and asks to receive “The Special Edition Holiday Mailer” without cheating and putting in a bunch of worthless entries just to get a prize, I’ll send you a one-off of a little winter promo gift that just went out to a small professional mailing list this year. It’s pretty cool.

[ANY Art Directors, Photo Buyers, agents, etc who would like to be added to this short list AND/OR people who nail those intervals please ping us at info at chasejarvis dot com with your physical address.]

The iPhone was missing a significant video camera and its particular the processor is lower versus the additional cell phones, however ?t had been successful! Why does you consider iPad’s going to reduce? . -= sebin’s continue website… Crank up your own apple ipad tablet with the Apps! =-.

Happy New Year Chase To start the year off right I’m catching up on your blog posts. I have the Lawrence Lessig TED video on my blog as well. I’m a fan like you and feel it’s a must to stay on top of copyright issues. After some recent debate on Creative Commons I had the good fortune of interviewing him for my podcast “EXIF and Beyond: Lawrence Lessig Interview“. You might find it of interest.

Chase, I can’t believe I missed out on this. I really enjoy your work, and the mailer would have been a huge encouragement. It’s hard getting things started at 20 years old, but I’m making it work. Thanks for your involvement in the community!

This is coming to you from way across the globe… Just wanted to let you know that I came across your site recently, and am completely hooked! Been in the business awhile now, but boy are you a breath of fresh air! Thanks for sharing.

TC.

P.S. I’m sure I’m way past the contest, but how about posting the mailer online for the rest of us?

@ taylor: yes it takes some time to get up and running, but fear not. Here’s some basic answers to FAQ’s about getting up and going. The post is more than a year old, so the camera equip has changed, but there’s a couple nuggets here:

Hey Chase, This is not related to the post but just had a quick question. I know you went to grad school but what did you do until your business started seeing success? Did you have any other jobs while learning photography on your own or did you just rough it financially while pursuing your passion?(i ask because this is my situation…ive got one year left of school and im beginning to question)Thanks!

As a direct result of listening to your reasons for sharing what you know I’ve relaxed my own views on this. I’ve taken to enjoy sharing what I know, especially with people who are new to off-camera flash and studio light.

Don’t know what my interval is but “oh well”… hope for the best! Have a great holiday!

I can’t belive I’m the first to butter you up for the Strobist challenge. So here’s the deal, Chase.

I’m going to submit a few off-camera lighting photos to the strobist pool, conveniently under 5 different aliases (with 5 differet PO boxes around the US). If you could see fit to select my five (under the guise of artistic vision), I’ll totally send you a pair of my old shoes AND a t-shirt.

Maybe I’ll even make you a new t-shirt on CafePress.com with something witty on it, like “Yo, Web Two-Oh”. I figure it would be tough for a dude like you to turn this down, as I know how much you like your t-shirts. And Web 2.0.

I like how the comments more or less end at 50. Your blogs are quite informative, and good reads, I appreciate it. I was wondering if you guys were planning on writing about your post processing at all? In this day of age, post seems to be almost equally important as going on the shoot in the first place, and I would love to see what you guys to to enhance colors, skin tones, etc to get the dope results you get.Well anyway, happy holidays.

I see that the commenting stopped at 48. Looks like everyone is waiting for that number 49 to pop up so they can be number 50. Well, I won a t-shirt for that superman game challenge, so I’ll take one for the team and post number 49. Enjoy!

I admire anyone who is willing to take the time to help make a difference in the lives of others. So many people are only focused on themselves that sometimes those who can use a helping hand get lost in the shuffle. You get 2 thumbs up from me.

I take time in the summer away from my newspaper job to volunteer to shoot a kayak camp for young adults with cancer, it doesn’t make me any money, but it is the most rewarding part of my year!

I would also be interested to know if the fundraising you are doing will continue past the holidays? I will certainly keep it in mind for future purchases.

Hey thanks for putting this all together, it’s a really nice resource. I really look forward to working with you and the Seattle Flickr Group. And I wouldn’t mind getting one of them Holiday Mailers either.

Have to add my “Thank You” here as well, Chase. I became aware of your stuff through your buddy back east, Mr. Hobby. Stumbling onto his blog (and subsequently yours) has really upped the quality of my own work, and I have nothing but praise and admiration for you guys.

Hey Chase,Just thought I would up the comment list… Anyway I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your inside knowledge with the photography community. I come here and Dave’s site (Strobist) and you guys do a great job with everything. Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

CJ, I really enjoy your videos adn blog. I especially like the how videos. I also read The strobist and prefer that way of lighting over using my speedotron lights. Could you do more behind the scences how to videos and may with lighting diagrams and thinking comments as to why you did it this way so we can learn more from you and your videos. Also one thing is missing form your packing video… You forgot to mention the shippping cases in the lists. I know the where Pelican 16xx from the video but I have forgot and I have probelms downloading them in to ituns the short will not save at all and th elong version hangs up in the same spot everytime. I do not know if it is my copies or the whole fo rt he iTunes.